I’m in Spain. As you can tell from my list, I was prepared. I had “bags”. I left DC a couple weeks ago and drove up to Cape Cod with my brother in my 2006 Honda Civic Coupe. If I haven’t told you about this car, whose name is Glampers, suffice to say that she is the best vehicle in the world except that she breaks all the time and smells like dog and was a bad purchase. Below you will find me using the emergency duct tape to keep the car’s bumper from liberating itself.

This procedure was repeated several times over a nine-hour trip. At one rest stop a fellow told me that he would have given me a ticket if he were a cop. I informed that I prefer not to deal in hypotheticals. My brother and I arrived at our parents’ house on Cape Cod without further difficulty. The inhabitants of the house include my mother, my father, and their dog.

You might think that she is reaching desperately for a few crumbs of a cake that would kill her but you are mistaken. She’s reading the Academy for Lifelong Learning pamphlet. She happens to be farsighted. After acquiring the rest of the emergency supplies I took a plane to Oslo. I don’t know what the ground looks like there but the sky looks really cool.

Right? Then I took another plane to Spain. I realized that cities are kind of a funny idea. The buildings look like they’re trying to keep warm, March of the Penguins style.

Now I’m in Mallorca, where I hope to finish a draft of my new book, Hope is Oxygen. I’m off to a good start in that I found beer, a table, and some chairs.

I actually do most of my writing in a Turkish kabob shop. I will take pictures for the next post. If you happen to be getting ready to travel remember to make a list that includes a glow stick, a tarp (6×8), and one emergency whistle-compass, which, to my surprise, does in fact exist.